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ADDFiESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

, - ^ NEW-EK GLAND SOCIETY 

OF SOUIH-tAROLLNA, 



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OK THK 

22(1 DECEMBER. 1820. 

BEING THE 

TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE 

Landing at Plymouth 

Off THE 

^^^VESTORS OF JVEfF EJ^GLdJ^T). 



Bv WILLIAM CRAFTS, Esc^.-A Membes. 



I love thee, thou Land of ihe rocks and the mountains, 
Tho' the snows that invest thee have exiled the vine ; 

I love thee, tho' icicles bar up thy fountains. 
For still thro' the coldness of these dost thou shine. 



<(riEiarMtoti : 

PRINTED FOR THK SOCIETY: 
By Itiumas B. Steplitns, No 8, Tradd-street. 



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79 

GENERAL SULLIVAN. 



OF 



MASSACHUSETTS, 



THIS LITTUQ JBFFOBT i^ IMSCULBED*. 



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\DDRESS. 



ON this day, two hundred years ago, a haiidful 
of individuals landed, at an inclement season, on an 
unknown and barren coast; in the land of pestilence, 
on the territory of the Savage. Fraud or accident 
had diverted the course of their voyage, and they 
were placed beyond the protection, weak as it was, 
of European charters. Neither the Church nor the 
State accorded them the privilege of monopoly or of 
participation, and they landed with no better plea 
than their necessities, and no protector but their God. 

Providence was not unmindful of them. That 
they might with scrupulous honesty occupy the soil, 
its former inhabitants had perished by disease, or 
wandered into exile — that they might in infancy be 
secure from Indian warfare, the natives had been 
withdrawn from the sea shore — and lest famine 
should involve them in early ruin, the scanty grana- 
ries of the Savage became the treasure trove of the 
stranger. The soil was rugged and mountainous, 
indicating the labor and perseverance which its cul- 
ture required. It had not the baneful reputation of 
gold and silver mines, the cheap ruin of adventurers 
and nations. It was primitive and virginal, like the 
€nows that invested it. Scarce a path on its surface 





'but the track of the hunter and his game — scarce a 
sound in its forests but the rude chorus of the winds. 

Well may we ask what worldly inducement im- 
pelled this little band of men, women and children 
away from their friends and their home, in a little 
barque, across the perilous ocean, to an ice-bound 
rocky shore. Was it ambition ? that master passion 
of the human breast, that knows not difficulties in 
the pursuit of power — To charge them with ambi- 
tion were to accuse them of lunacy. Was it Avarice, 
that Cameleon curse of our nature, which assimilates 
us to all climates and all suffering in pursuit of gain ? 
They had no means to traffic, and no arms to plun- 
der. Were they convicts, doomed to expiate among 
the savage their sins among the civilized ? Tbey 
had been sinned against, not sinned themselves. It 
was that sense of wrong, which he, who feels it at all, 
feels most acutely and forgives never — It was that 
species of oppression, w^hich he who endures all else 
never will endure, that gave birth to this desperate ' 
and heroic enterprize. You may invade a man's 
opinions, one by one, and disposess him of them all, 
until you interfere with his religious sentiments and 
his rights of conscience. You then strike a spring, 
whose elasticity increases with its pressure, rallying 
every other power in the system and quickening the 
motion of them all. You provoke his love of truth — 
his regard for early impressions — his sense of duty — f 
his hopes of happiness — his pride — his zeal — his ob- 
stinacy — his chagrin and his resentment. He, who 
would willingly encounter these, knows nothing of 
the lessons of history. It appears to be the decree 
of God, that Religious persecution shall avail iss 



authors only shame and remorse, while it endows its" 
victims with extraordinary courage, ensures them tlie 
Divine protection, and fits tiiem for heroic suffering 
and achievment. 

It matters not whether Princes regard faith as con- 
nected with loyahy. If they look upon a sectary as 
a traitor, they will soon find in him a rebel. The 
fire that assails the temple will soon find its way to 
the palace " Proximus ardet." 

To the world, enlightened as it is with regard to 
the terrible eftects of religious dissention, it cannot 
but appear surprizing, how at a moment when the 
infallibility of the Catholic Church was so generally 
denied and deprecated in Europe — at such a mo- 
ment, when the mind was on the stretch of enquiry 
to supply the chasm thus created in its faith — 
even then a new church discipline among the 
Protestants should be regarded as perfect, and en- 
forced by the terrors of the secular arm. Nor can 
we look without pain upon the humihating fact, that 
questions such as these, whether a ring should be 
given in marriage — whether a surplice should be 
worn in preaching — whether in saying the Lord's 
prayer, we should say, " Father Our," or " Our 
Father," have stained in civilized countries the 
scaffold with innocent blood, and enlisted murder in 
the cause of bigotry. 

Yet out of events, apparently insignificant, and by 
humble and simple means does the Almighty mould 
the destinies of the earth, defying and defeating 
human sagacity in the march of omnipotent wisdom. 
Had Hooper been allowed to dispense with his gown» 



8 
the Pimtang might have been retained in the body 
of the Church, and had Cromwell been allowed to 
embark for America, the world had not witnessed the 
crimes and the triumphs of that marvellous hypocrite^ 

The Ancestors of New-England, driven from theii* 
home by the persecution of l.aud, after a short resi- 
dence in Holland, where rehgious and political dis- 
cussions prevailed with much force and freedom, em- 
barked for America, in the hope of enjoying reli- 
gious liberty, if not at home, yet under the authority 
of their Monarch. They asked his licence to live in 
an uncomfortable wilderness crowded with dangers,, 
but so obnoxious were their doctrines, and so slighted 
their loyalty, that they were refused protection, and 
only promised indifference. Fhey came however, 
und the treachery of the Dutch, who had furnished 
them a refuge, caused them to be landed far north of 
their original destination. 

Houseless, frozen, miserable outcasts ! why not 
forsake your hopeless enterprize, and leave to the 
great men of the earth the costly office of planting 
Colonies, enlightening the Heathen, and taming the 
Savage. 

"It was not" to use their own language "with them 
us with common men, whom small things could dis* 
courage or small discontents cause to wish to be 
again at home." They formed on board of their ship 
a plan of civil and political government, a strict and 
■"sacred bond to take care of the good of each other 
and the whole," and disembarked with a fearless in- 
trepidity, inspired by conscience and justified by 
1 leaven. 



9 

If the Indian was friendly for a while, the climate 
made war upon thcni, and ere they could plant tiie 
earth with seed for the living, they opened it to f nd 
graves for the dead. They were sorrowful but not 
disheartened, adhering to their purpose with an in- 
tense steadiness of soul, which almost excites the be- 
lief, that an Angel had revealed to them the glories 
of their destiny. They endured neglect and oppres- 
sion, the awards which the world in its charity and 
its discernment decrees to merit and to genius. Ln- 
thinldng world ! how often thy wrongs are sources of 
triumph, and thy honors, themes of ridicule. A strong 
aftection among themselves — an unbending reliance 
on Providence — patience in suffering — perseverance 
in toil — strict honesty, and benevolent regard to- 
wards the Indians were their characteristics. By the 
aid of these, and the rigid purity of their manners, 
altho' peaceable, they conquered a country-althougli 
unambitious, they founded an empire — although ob- 
scure, they shall be held in honored remembrance. 

The Colonies planted in various parts of the con- 
thient may be regarded as adjective, leaning for sup- 
port on a religious or a political power. The Pil- 
grims of Plymouth stood by themselves. Other set- 
tlements, having royal copartners and ecclesiastical 
license, faded away and withered. These were re- 
fused a charter from the State — The Church regard- 
ed them as heretics, but their rights were embraced 
in die line of Virgil, " Deus nobis hoec otia fecit." 

Soon after the discovery of this Continent, if dis- 
covery be a proper term, the Pope, with a generosity 
that cost him nothing, gave one half of its territory 
to the King of Spain, and the other to him of 
Poriugal. The amiable monarch of France, who 

B 



3© 
could not, as lie said, discover tliese legacies hi 
Adaoj's will, found a clause in iiis own favor, entitl- 
ing him to a share, and Henry the oth, who coveted 
every thing, was alive to the charms of foreign em- 
pire and the honor of extending the true church. — 
The Dutch claimed dominion over a part, but tiieir 
autiiority soon melted into allegiance to their neigh- 
bors, and their claims disappeared. These confiict- 
itis, titles all agreed in this particular, that they were 
or pretended to be under royal and religious grants. 
h^t us examine the rights which they conferred. — 
The Pope as the head of tlie Church, gave away the 
territory to the Spanish and Porrugueze as the earliest 
Chnsiian Discoverers. The gift was invalid and the 
reason was untrue. Tiie Pope had no right in the 
premises and all the discoverers of tills Country 
Vi'cre Italians. It was destined for anotiier Rome, 
and, if there had not been a misnomer in our christ- 
ening we should all have been Romans. The right 
of discovery appertains to that only which has been 
lost, or which is new. An inhabited country can 
iie_ver be the subject of such a conveyance. Every 
grant accorded in Europe was consequently void 
and worthless for any rigiit, that it conveyed. The 
unchartered Pilgrims of Plymouth therefore, had as 
ample and as just a title to this country as any body 
in.the world, not excepting the Savages themselves. 
For it can be easily shown that the territorial rights 
of the Savage were limited in their extent, and infe- 
rior in their order to those, which the Pilgrims de- 
vived from God, and nature. 

It is not true as a general position, that the soil of 
this Coofinent ever belonged to the Savage. He had 
mer^ < ■ e right to hunt in its forests, with this addi- 
tion, thai in tiie parts of the soil cultivated and im- 



H 
proved by hiin, or occupied v,it\\ that design, he had 
an absolute estate. 

it is a rule, that the capacity to improve gives the 
best i"ight to enjoy. It is also a rule, thai wiien (lie 
exercise of one right becomes incompatible uitli the 
due use of another, that \\'^iich is least imporidnt 
shall be discontinued. Now, what are wc to believe 
was the design of the Almighty in placing man ujjon 
the earth ? That he might draw forth its latent re- 
sources — enlighten its hidden recesses — cover ii with 
smiling harvests — increase its capacities of produc- 
tion — analyse its subvStance, and adorn its surface 
with mansions of comfort and happiness, asylums 
for misfortune, nurseries for literal ure, and temples 
for piety. And wherefore did he give to hinf the 
magnificent Ocean ? That he might traverse it for 
health, for pleasure, for riches, for learning, for liberty, 
for conquest and for glory. 

The culture of the earth is that toil for bread, which 
the Scriptures ordain. Shall the hunter stand at the 
mouth of the forest and oppose the entrance of civi- 
lized man ? Shall tiie Savage lift his tomahawk 
against the decree of the Almighty, and forbid the 
gospel to enlighten the heathen, or the wilderness to 
blossom like the rose ? Shall territories, fitted to sus- 
tain thousands in polished life, be the exclusive do- 
main of a few indolent stragglers ? As well mi.y the 
fisherman stand up in his canoe, and call the (;ctaii 
his ! The escape of a deer disappoints the hunter at 
once of his prize and his empire ; and if the fish 
elude hishne, wiiere is the sovereignty of the angler? 
The agriculturist is entitled to as nmch of the fiiest 
as he needs. The chace miist yield. to the |!l<. :gh. 
Iffiic In'ian will not change hi ha' 'ts. he Jti. alter 
his abode, VVheu the fox becomes tame he uiaf 



n 

abiHe in the citv, and when the Indian condescends* 
to be civilized he may abandon the woods. We take 
without ceremony the possessions of a lunatic, hold- 
ing them in trust for his reviving reason. 

These sentiments may be perceived to indicate tlie 
extinction of the Indic>;i race. And w liy should not 
that happen; nations are not immoitd. Greece — 
beloved Greece, whose language is the nomenclature 
of nearly all that we know — whose institutions were 
the models of nearly all that we enjoy — whose heroes 
the portraits of nearly all that we admire — Greece 
is no more — her land is prostituted by the foot of the 
Turk and the song of Lord Byron. 

Rome, after all her noble lessons and examples 
of public spirit — after the production of her immor- 
tal Code — after blessing the world with Cicero, 
enough of himself to embalm a world — after her 
magnificent achievements in the beautiful arts, did 
not the Barbarians destroy her ? 

And shall ignorance alone stalk in triumph on the 
earth, and shall not the Savage yield in his turn to 
the tide of civihzation — What is there to redeem 
these from the mortality of nations ? In the long 
lapse of ages what have they done for the improve- 
ment of mankind ? Nothing. What for the culti- 
vation or adornment of the earth ? Nothing. What 
for their own amelioration or happiness ? Nothing. 
What is their occupation p The chace — What their 
delight? Indolence. What their warfare ? Strata- 
gem. What their faith ? Duplicity. What are they ? 
What they were. V^ hat will they be ? What they 
are. Will they never improve ? No, never. The 
Sun and the Stars, the sentinels of Heaven, watching 
human improvements on earth have scarcely detected 
them in a solitary etfurt. To assign to tiie indiaos 



V3 
an indetinite longevity would be to arrest the molloH 
and mutability of Earth and its empires. Yet in their 
history there will remain redeeming virtues. Many 
a Monarch might covet the noble constancy of Mon- 
tezuma, and the pure fame of Massassoit — and many 
a maiden cnmlate the sweet acts of Pocahontas. 

The Pilgrims of Plymouth formed the nucleus 
around which ulterior accessions grew, and CApand- 
ing became the Colonies of New-England. 1 hey 
purchased from the Indians their rights, real or imagi- 
nary, and James the First came with tardy reluctance 
into the confirmation of a settlement, whose birth 
had been obnoxious to him. Their religious inde- 
pendence soon led them to political inquiries. How 
difficult it is to stay the hand, that lifts but half a veil. 
Curiosity is like light, once give it admission and it 
penetrates every where. Charles the First called the 
Plymouth Colony a factious set. They began it is 
true, with denying hereditary right unless it were 
accompanied by hereditary talents and hereditary 
virtue ; and whether we look to Virginia or New- 
England, we find the same spirit and the same de- 
claration of the right of self-government in the Colo- 
nists themselves. 

It required little sagacity to discover, that the 
British yoke would be borne no longer than it was 
comfortable, being regarded as an ornament, and 
never suspected to be a chain. It was accordingly 
broken into atoms, and the lightning, that destroyed 
it while it revealed the Independence of America, 
awoke the sleeping lions of liberty throughou t the globe. 

If, on this day, after the lapse of two centuries, one 
of the Fathers of New-England, released from the 
5leep of deatli, could re-appear on earth what would 



14 

Jje his emotions of joy and wonder! In lieu of a, 
wilderness, here and there interspersed with solitary 
cabins, where life was scarcely worth the danger of 
preserving it, he would behold joyful harvests, a 
population crowded even to satiety — villages, towns, 
cities, states, swarming with industrious inhabitants, 
hills graced with temples of devotion, and vallies 
vocal with the early lessons of virtue. Casiing his 
eye on the ocean, \>hich he past in fear and trembling, 
he would see it covered with enterprizing fleets re- 
turning with the whale as their captive, and the 
wealth of the Indies for their cargo. He would be- 
hold the little colony wbicli he planted, grown into 
gigantic stature, and forming an honorable part of a 
glorious confederacy, the pride of the earth and the 
favorite of Heaven, lie would witness with exulta- 
tion the general prevalence of correct principles of 
government and virtuous habits of action ; how 
gladly would he gaze upon the long stream of light 
and renown from Harvard's classic fount, and the 
kindred springs of Yale, of Providence, of D irt- 
mouth and of Brunswick. Would you fill his bosom 
Avith honest pride, tell him of Franklin, who made 
the thunder sweet music, and the lightning innocent 
fire-works — of Adams, the venerable sage reserved 
by heaven, himself a blessing, to witness its blessings 
on our nation — of Ames, whose tongue became, and 
has become an Angel's — of Perrv, 

" Blest l)v his God with ont- iilustnous day, 
A Rlize of Glory, <.re lie p, ssed a\VH\ •" 

And tell him. Pilgrim of Plymouth, these are thy de^ 
scendants. Show him the stately structures, the splen- 
did benevolence, the masculine intellect, and the sweet 
hospitality of the metropolis of New- England. Shew 
him that immortal vessel, whose name is synoniraous 
with triuaiph, and each of her masts a sceptre. Sho^r 



15 

him the glorious fruits of his humble cnterprizc, and 
ask liirn if this, all this be not an atonemf iit for his suf- 
ferings, a '^compense for his toils, a blet^sing on his ef- 
forts, and a heart-expanding triumph for the Filgrmi 
adventurer. And if he be proud of his offspring, well 
may they boast of their parentage. 

The descendants of New-£ngland, wherever situ- 
ated, must regard with sympatliy the land of their 
Ancestors, and look back with pride upon their com- 
mon origin. The statesman can fmd no brighter ex- 
am[)le of union, strength and harmony than that, 
under which these early associates grew into 
celebrity and pov, er. They knew not sectional di" 
visions — they were one — the strong supporting the 
weak, the weak confiding in the strong. They were 
ivise — but alas, wisdom belongs to poverty and dan* 
ger, and not to pride or prosperity. 

In the happy days of our Republic we seem to be 

losing sight of the cardinal points of happiness. Local 

jealousies darken the political horizon,and fill it with 

dismay. The startling question of Missouri, teeming 

with unknown and unimagined issues — whence did 

it arise and where will it eventuate ? It did not arise 

in iNevv-England. The North and the South, like 

physical extremes, have the same tendency and re- 
semble each other. 

This evil spirit, for so we may call that, which has 
grown so suddenly and darkly over us, blending in 
new combinations all the elements of discord, origi- 
nated, it is believed, in the intermediate States. — 
Speaking of it as men unacquainted with its views, , 
but having every thing to dread in its progress, may 
we not say, that to question or to assail the early and 
sacred compromise of our confederacy seems to be 
no more honest, tiian to a«saiJ or invalidcUe hiAvful 



rights — no more generous, than to taunt the unfortu- 
nate with their cjndidon — no more patriotic, than to 
deny one's allegiance, and no more humau, than to 
provoke the worst of civil wars. If these inquiries 
grow out of a love of power, it is that species of 
power which, as Pythagoras remarks of gold, im- 
properly acquired, had better not be acquired at all. 
If it be humanity, it is the humanity of fratricide ; 
there is too much darkness in the color of their chari- 
ty, and too much distance in the scope of its relief. 
Let us hope, that we have mistaken the motives and 
object of these painful discussions. Let us hope, that 
our Statesmen, on all subjects of national concern, 
will look to the interests of the whole and of each 
other. The warrior disdains domestic weapons — the 
Statesman should despise local prejudices; and it is 
a triumph unworthy of honorable ambition to crow 
over Achilles by pointing at his heel. 

Gentlemen of the New-England Society : — Un- 
connected with New-England by birth, I yet owe to 
it my name, and in justice to its inhabitants have 
penned this imperfect sketch. It is the record of ac- 
tive and persevering virtues, such as fdled up and 
adorned and endeared the long life of your late 
worthy President and benefactor.* I miss from^ 
among you his venerable form — -He rests from his 
benevolent labors. The useful only have a right to 
iive, and sweet is repose after honorable toil.. 

What is life ? But a pilgrimage under an uncertain 
sky, through dangerous paths, over obstacles fearful 
to encoimter and diificidt to remove. What is life, 
\iai a pilgrimage ? wiiicii is happy only, when it is 
over. 

* Xa\hanicl PnsscH. Esq. deceaserl. 



3477-61 
Lot-19 













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